Surprising how fast this happened/without any coverage. The choice of timings are interesting considering how the return flight does not connect to JFK, ORD or IAD. But I think the flight primarily has been started to provide easy connections to Europe on both ends.

Surprising how fast this happened/without any coverage. The choice of timings are interesting considering how the return flight does not connect to JFK, ORD or IAD. But I think the flight primarily has been started to provide easy connections to Europe on both ends.

Surprising how fast this happened/without any coverage. The choice of timings are interesting considering how the return flight does not connect to JFK, ORD or IAD. But I think the flight primarily has been started to provide easy connections to Europe on both ends.

Surprising how fast this happened/without any coverage. The choice of timings are interesting considering how the return flight does not connect to JFK, ORD or IAD. But I think the flight primarily has been started to provide easy connections to Europe on both ends.

I think the same holds true for the A321 BKK flights also. AI has started to do smart planning of late.

I thought that barring one flight to LHR, all other AI flights to Europe depart in the late morning/early afternoon.

So I really cannot see how this flight from SIN connects to any of them, particularly the return from SIN to DEL._________________I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

Air India is starting non-stop flights Birmingham from Amritsar twice a week from February 20, using its Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

"The new flight will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The flight will leave Amritsar at 1.55 pm hrs and reach Birmingham at 5.15 pm (all local timings). The return flight AI 118 will take off from Birmingham at 6.45 pm and reach Amritsar next day at 7.45 am," AI said in a statement. _________________10000 posts (and counting) on Airliners-India.

Air India Express will be commencing Kochi-Kuwait/Bahrain route and Madurai-Singapore route in FY2018. Madurai-Singapore flight is expected to opearte four to seven times a week. The carrier will be adding two Boeing 737-800 NG to its fleet of 23 aircraft in FY2019.

The LCC has stated Kannur as it's focus market for FY2019. Elaborating more on this Sundar said, "Kannur Airport is expected to be ready by mid 2018 and we are looking forward to become the first airline to start International operations from Kannur to Gulf and strengthen this market further ahead in FY2019."

Air India Express will be commencing Kochi-Kuwait/Bahrain route and Madurai-Singapore route in FY2018. Madurai-Singapore flight is expected to opearte four to seven times a week. The carrier will be adding two Boeing 737-800 NG to its fleet of 23 aircraft in FY2019.

The LCC has stated Kannur as it's focus market for FY2019. Elaborating more on this Sundar said, "Kannur Airport is expected to be ready by mid 2018 and we are looking forward to become the first airline to start International operations from Kannur to Gulf and strengthen this market further ahead in FY2019."

This is a 787 route, right? Surprisingly civilised arrival and departure timings for AI. And yes, I think it'll follow the same circuitous routing, unlikely the Arab countries will make an exception for AI.

This is a 787 route, right? Surprisingly civilised arrival and departure timings for AI. And yes, I think it'll follow the same circuitous routing, unlikely the Arab countries will make an exception for AI.

From DEL, u cud also go via China, the Stans,Turkey and then down south

This is a 787 route, right? Surprisingly civilised arrival and departure timings for AI. And yes, I think it'll follow the same circuitous routing, unlikely the Arab countries will make an exception for AI.

From DEL, u cud also go via China, the Stans,Turkey and then down south

Good on AI for this flight. Better linking Israel and India goes beyond just airline economics. So probably money well spent even if it loses money. One thing, the flight doesn't seem to be timed for connections east (like BKK). I wonder why. On the flip side, one could probably connect to most of India with the timings AI has.

Besides, the frequency to Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne are also being enhanced to five times a week from four-times and three-times a-week, respectively at present, the official added.

"All our flights to the US are making money barring the one which is to Newark via London. We've been seeing consistently good passenger load factor on the US routes. The San Francisco flight is also clocking over 80 per cent seat factor since the launch in December 2015.

"This has prompted to us to connect Mumbai directly with San Francisco and we plan to launch a flight service to the Silicon Valley from the coming summers,"the official said.

The proposed flight will be operated three times a week with a Boeing 777 aircraft, as per the official.

Israel to give 750,000 euros to Air India for launching Delhi-Tel Aviv flight

Feb 06, 2018

Air India will get a one-time grant of 750,000 euros from Israel for launching direct flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, which is likely to be launched next month, a senior Israeli official said today.

"The Ministry of Tourism will approve a grant to Air India in response to their request and according to the conditions of the directive, which includes a grant of 250,000 Euro per weekly flight, up to a total of three weekly flights," Lydia Weitzman, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, told PTI here.

"It is a one-time grant for an airline opening a new direct route into Tel Aviv (TLV) from a destination that has potential for incoming tourism," she said.

Informed sources here said that the Indian flag carrier could start its direct flights into Israel from New Delhi on March 20, flying thrice a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Dubbed a "game changer" in Israel's efforts to promote inbound tourism from India, Air India's direct flight between New Delhi and Tel Aviv would be operating on the shortest route and is expected to bring down significantly the cost of travel between the two countries.

"Hopefully Air India would soon start direct flights between India and Tel Aviv which is going to be a game changer increasing manifold the number of tourists coming from India to Israel.

Air India's popular Delhi-San Francisco (SFO) nonstop could soon become a daily flight. The soon-to-be-privatised Maharaja has sought slots from Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) for the currently six days a week flight.

"We have sought slot for Sunday for the SFO nonstop in the coming summer schedule. Once we get that, it will be a daily flight," said an AI spokesman. Summer schedule starts from the last Sunday of March. The increased frequency comes as this popular connection is the fastest and only direct flight between India and the west coast of USA. _________________10000 posts (and counting) on Airliners-India.

Lots of good news in the above posts.
1) Good on Israel to offer that 750K to AI. Shows their commitment to their India relationship. I think the flight will be good for business and tourist ties (flowing both ways)
2) Glad SFO-DEL finally going daily - was long overdue
3) SYD and MEL going to 5 times a week also long overdue. Hopefully AI will fly to OZ daily (meaning don't have MEL and SYD flights on the same days).
4) Interesting that all US flights EXCEPT AMD-LHR-EWR are making money. People here all seem to think BOM-EWR is a dog. That AMD flight never made sense beyond the AMD-LHR part. With Norwegian, there is no market for carriers like AI to provide cheap US-Europe flights. Also, I would prefer to fly EWR-BOM-AMD simply because you can sleep on the EWR-BOM part. You cannot sleep on the 5 hour flight from EWR-LHR (when it is in the air).
5) BOM-SFO - should be a big NO. Let Jet have BOM unless demand warrants (like BOM-LHR or BOM-DXB). AI should either add DEL-LAX or increase IAD to 6X. Even add 3X DEL-YYZ or EWR-DEL are better.

Lots of good news in the above posts.
1) Good on Israel to offer that 750K to AI. Shows their commitment to their India relationship. I think the flight will be good for business and tourist ties (flowing both ways)
2) Glad SFO-DEL finally going daily - was long overdue
3) SYD and MEL going to 5 times a week also long overdue. Hopefully AI will fly to OZ daily (meaning don't have MEL and SYD flights on the same days).
4) Interesting that all US flights EXCEPT AMD-LHR-EWR are making money. People here all seem to think BOM-EWR is a dog. That AMD flight never made sense beyond the AMD-LHR part. With Norwegian, there is no market for carriers like AI to provide cheap US-Europe flights. Also, I would prefer to fly EWR-BOM-AMD simply because you can sleep on the EWR-BOM part. You cannot sleep on the 5 hour flight from EWR-LHR (when it is in the air).
5) BOM-SFO - should be a big NO. Let Jet have BOM unless demand warrants (like BOM-LHR or BOM-DXB). AI should either add DEL-LAX or increase IAD to 6X. Even add 3X DEL-YYZ or EWR-DEL are better.

I agree with 4) hopefully after privatization AI wont be running these politically motivated routes. I dont think the AMD part makes sense. Wasting a precious slot on a small city. IMO even a DEL-LHR-EWR would work better. I think LHR-EWR on AI is not a bad option for travelers as you get a solid J product on *A carrier flying into Heathrow at cheap prices. But running long haul flights from AMD is really a bad proposition.

DEL-YYZ would be difficult to compete with AC's dreamliner economics. AI could offer EWR with an afternoon departure from DEL. That way they could rotate the aircraft coming in from IAD and increase utilization.

The vast majority of the passengers on the India-Israel routes are Israelis, who will not fly on any airline other than EL AL. I really doubt the Israelis are going to be coughing up money forever to keep AI viable on this route.

If anything, DEL-TLV is a more politically motivated route than anything from AMD, and privatisation will definitely put an end to this.

BOM-TLV would have probably worked better, given the business connections between the two cities._________________I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

The vast majority of the passengers on the India-Israel routes are Israelis, who will not fly on any airline other than EL AL. I really doubt the Israelis are going to be coughing up money forever to keep AI viable on this route.

If anything, DEL-TLV is a more politically motivated route than anything from AMD, and privatisation will definitely put an end to this.

BOM-TLV would have probably worked better, given the business connections between the two cities.

I don’t know if DEL-TLV will be that bad. It could actually stimulate traffic if AI offers cheap fares also they will provide a fast flight to a new city, DEL and then offer easy connections to places like GOA. There is Indian govt traffic goes to TLV. I don’t know why everyone says Israelis will only fly El AL. That is just not try. A lot of low brow airlines fly to Israel. Between the US and Israel there used to be Tower Air which was a crap airline. I think the AI flight will affect Turkish the most.

I don’t know if DEL-TLV will be that bad. It could actually stimulate traffic if AI offers cheap fares also they will provide a fast flight to a new city, DEL and then offer easy connections to places like GOA. There is Indian govt traffic goes to TLV. I don’t know why everyone says Israelis will only fly El AL. That is just not try. A lot of low brow airlines fly to Israel. Between the US and Israel there used to be Tower Air which was a crap airline. I think the AI flight will affect Turkish the most.

Israelis will fly any airline going westwards, but for flights to the east they do prefer El Al.

Their biggest concern is as to what would happen if there is an incident on board, and the airplane has to divert to one of the middle eastern countries where Israelis are not welcome.

And how much of government traffic could there be between the DEL and TLV? It is not like a handful of bureaucrats are flying back and forth everyday.

The only destination in India with any potential to TLV is BOM._________________I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

In a first, Saudi allows Air India to use its airspace to fly to Israel

February 7, 2018

In what can be called Saudi Arabia's growing proximity with Israel, the nation has granted Air India's new flight line to Israel to traverse its airspace.

This is the first time Saudi Arabia is allowing flight line to use its airspace to travel to Israel as reported by Haaretz.com. The nod from Saudi Arabia means that the distance between Delhi and Tel Aviv will now be shortened by about 2.5 hours.

Apart from the reduced flight time, the new route will also help the airline to cut fuel cost and offer cheaper tickets.

This is a rare feat as the Saudi airspace has been closed for 70 years not only to Israeli aircraft but with other nations that have a flight-path to Israel.

Only two flights have been flown over Saudi Arabia to Israel in the recent decades the United States Air Force One with Presidents George Bush and Donald Trump.

Responding to request submitted by Air India to operate flights on Tel Aviv-New Delhi line over Saudi airspace, Saudi official says no such authorization given, despite Israeli officials' claims to the contrary; if authorized, flight durations will decrease by 2 hours, ticket prices will drop.

Mere hours after Israeli officials claimed that Air India received authorization to fly over Saudi airspace in its New Delhi-Tel Aviv line, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said Wednesday they provided no such permission.

Previously, an Air India spokesman officially announced the airliner was awaiting authorization from Indian authorities to fly over Saudi Arabia. No incoming or outgoing flights have yet to pass through the skies of the Arab kingdom, with which Israel has no diplomatic ties. _________________10000 posts (and counting) on Airliners-India.

Responding to request submitted by Air India to operate flights on Tel Aviv-New Delhi line over Saudi airspace, Saudi official says no such authorization given, despite Israeli officials' claims to the contrary; if authorized, flight durations will decrease by 2 hours, ticket prices will drop.

Mere hours after Israeli officials claimed that Air India received authorization to fly over Saudi airspace in its New Delhi-Tel Aviv line, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said Wednesday they provided no such permission.

Previously, an Air India spokesman officially announced the airliner was awaiting authorization from Indian authorities to fly over Saudi Arabia. No incoming or outgoing flights have yet to pass through the skies of the Arab kingdom, with which Israel has no diplomatic ties.

On one of the forums I was saying how the press shouldn't turn this into a favor for Israel as it could aggravate the Saudi public. And now this. Why couldn't AI of firmed things up and then had some minister say Saudi made a special favor for India and had Israel zip it. I know the answer to that - one country wanted the win.

Will the Iranians and Pakistanis allow overflight rights to a TLV bound aircraft?_________________I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

Air India will retain its name even after the government divests it stake in the airline. It is reliably learnt that retaining the name is one of the conditions that the government will lay down for prospective bidders. The erstwhile Tata Airlines became a public company and was christened Air India in 1946.

The brand name Air India has undergone very few, though substantive changes, over the years. For example, in 2005 the airline’s management decided to drop the hyphen between Air and India, a move which helped the airline be drawn up further ahead of other global airlines in the reservation systems around the world.

Air India will add a dozen planes this year, including 11 Airbus A320neo jets, as the carrier seeks to tap rising travel demand at home and expand overseas.

The state-owned airline is charting out a plan to add more overseas routes, Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said in an interview. Air India will also take delivery of a widebody Boeing 777-300 Extended Range plane by the end of February, increasing the fleet of such aircraft to 16, he said. Air India started inducting the fuel-efficient A320neo planes on lease from early 2017 whereas the 777-300ER plane is part of an earlier order with Boeing.

Kharola said the carrier will use the new Boeing plane to grow frequencies to its existing destinations in the U.S. and Australia. Air India, a member of the Star Alliance, flies to U.S. cities such as New York and San Francisco, as well as to Sydney and Melbourne._________________10000 posts (and counting) on Airliners-India.

Twice daily nonstops: Air India looks at SFO on weekends and to Australia thrice a week

Feb 17, 2018

Air India is looking at majorly increasing the frequency of its popular nonstops to San Francisco (SFO) and Australia. The Delhi-SFO flight is currently six days a week and the Maharaja is planning a 50% increase by making it nine times a week. And the daily Delhi-Australia nonstop may be raised to 10 flights weekly. AI is the only airline that flies nonstop from India to Australia and to the west coast of US.

“We are witnessing lot of rush on the SFO nonstop during weekends. So we are looking at having a double daily on Fridays and Sundays. As of now there are two options, to make it a daily or have 9 a week. We are more keen on nine flights,” said a senior AI official.

Similarly, AI currently has four flights a week on Delhi-Sydney and three to Melbourne. The airline is planning to make it five flights a week to Sydney and as many to Melbourne.

Meanwhile, AI is for now not considering launching a Delhi-Los Angeles (LA) nonstop. “We have our entire establishment in SFO. There is appetite for more flights to SFO due to demand. Launching flights to LA at this stage means lot of additional expense. So we are looking more towards increasing frequency of SFO nonstop than starting a new route (LA),” the official said. _________________10000 posts (and counting) on Airliners-India.